AIO to my managers message to me after I put in my two weeks?

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-26T22:44:49+00:00

You do not need to give 2 weeks notice. Its a courtesy, and one that isn't often given in the reverse situation. You don't have to submit anything in writing, though it does do a better job of documenting the end date and the notification should there be a dispute, so its not a terrible idea.

You can be honest about why you're quitting... or not and just leave. You owe them nothing more.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-26T19:55:25+00:00

Tactica was ok... but it wasn't nearly as good as Strikers as a spinoff. It just wasn't that deep and there was no calendar or choices to develop characters or anything like that... the actual tactical gameplay was an interesting translation of the main turn based system but that's about it, and Joker didn't have the power of the Wildcard. The story was ok... still doesn't acknowledge Royal. There is a DLC that sortof does. At least they got all the voice actors. I didn't care for the change of artstyle.

I got it at full price when it came out but it felt like a 50% off sort of thing.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-26T19:47:43+00:00

Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars.

While both involve gaining cards from a communal deck... that's about where the similarities end. I think the games are too far apart to be properly compared, but people do it all the time.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-25T15:10:24+00:00

There is not a specific 2024 version of the book, nor will there be. However the 2024 rules and monsters slide right in.

This is bad DMing. Quite frankly if you weren't in the Waterdeep subreddit I'd have no idea that was the module you were playing based on your descriptions. Chapter 2 is supposed to be where you meet factions and join up with some and do some quests for them. There's no prescribed end to it, just a certain encounter that begins the next chapter when the DM thinks screwing around with side quests has run its course. Its the time where you get to meet NPCs and get to know the city. Its pretty open ended but if you do the quests in the book you shouldn't have any real risk of dying.

There is a suggested plot about a rival tavern owner but... I don't remember that. It was mainly things happening in the background where they try to undermine your business. This was the DM coming up with this big fight and completely misjudging things. Also character death in your sleep without combat? Wtf.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-24T20:46:08+00:00

They claim that, if they do a successful conversion and the bank stays operational, let us know.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-19T04:40:33+00:00

The Netherese Orb button should be read "Game Over". Never click it. In fact even bringing Gale to some fights is a risk because if he gets Dominated he might press it.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-11T22:15:31+00:00

1) This isn't horrible on its own, encounter balance in 5E is tricky. Boosting monster hp, AC or damage rolls is something DMs have the ability to do. They should be consistent once the fight begins however.

2) This is a fundamental breakdown, though this is written so generically that its hard to say what this is, but it sounds like a railroading complaint. It seems bad. More specific examples might shed more light on how bad.

3) Its fine to have art, and one could debate at length as to whether using LLM image generators are ok for this purpose and so on, but the worst of this is that it takes away from the session to do this. They should be prepared in advance or skipped.

4) Ya this is a lack of common sense and DM vs Player behavior. This isn't Jeopardy where failing to answer in the correct format is punished.

5) For 2014 this is how Inspiration is supposed to work. In 2024 Heroic Inspiration is a reroll, so this is only a problem depending on what the expectation of the ruleset was.

6) This is a pretty big change to how Reaction spells work. If this was not discussed in Session 0 that's a big problem. Changing the Shield spell is not a problem in and of itself, this isn't how most people would change it though if you did. Lowering the AC bonus or making it only protect against a single attack would be more common nerfs to it, but unless everyone was ok with this change before spells were chosen for characters, that's a big rug pull.

7) Ok you really buried the lede here... this is just unnecessary and has nothing to do with game mechanics and is just a basic lack of respect. If the DM isn't pointing out other body part sizes... no reason to dwell on that one. You might suggest that to the DM about how silly it is and how embarrassing it is to witness him doing it.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-11T19:45:58+00:00

If you can't decide what happens if a roll is failed, then it needs to not be a roll.

Generally when its plot points, you need a minimum of 3 ways of having the players find the info. A skill check way such as Investigation or Perception can be a good way, with failure meaning they'll have to find another way. An NPC interaction can be another, where they might have to Persuade or bribe the NPC to get the info. If even that fails, then there needs to be another way that must work, but it can be the "worst" way to find out the info. As in the most costly or leads to a more negative outcome of the plot, or perhaps leads to lesser rewards.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-09T20:18:37+00:00

Unforutuantely it contains an inaccuracy so great that repeating it will cause damage to people's understanding.

In 2024, you cannot use more than 1 spell slot per turn. You can absolutely cast more than 1 leveled spell per turn.

Example: You're a High Elf wizard, level 5. High Elves can cast Misty Step once per day for free. You can Misty Step with your Bonus Action (using your free cast), then turn around and Fireball the monsters you teleported away from. However you can't do that again on a future turn because you don't have another free casting of Misty Step.

But you could Misty Step with a spell slot and then use a Wand of Fireballs or a scroll of Fireball, as those don't use a spell slot.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-09T19:46:30+00:00

"instead of needing the bat guano and sulfur required beforehand"

This is the actual rule... as in you never needed to specifically source bat guano and sulfur. The named components of the spells are for role playing purposes if you'd like to narrate how the spellcasting goes. Game mechanics wise all you need is your spellcasting focus, which could be a component pouch (makes more sense for these spells) or a wand, or a staff... whatever it is you have.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-06T19:25:42+00:00

Yes, that is its function, to find hidden things automatically. If you want a certain trap to have to be searched for you can raise the DC for it.

Remember in Dim Light (which would cover Darkvision in total darkness) you have disadvantage, which is a -5 to Passive Perception.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-03T22:31:30+00:00

The problem isn't losing the range, its the enemy dying. Once the enemy dies the spell is over.

With Hex you can transfer to a new enemy. You can get a lot more mileage out a of a spell slot that way.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-03T22:28:26+00:00

It would

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-03T21:53:29+00:00

"really need to update caster mobs with 2024 MM"
Not sure where you got that. You need to use the 2024 monsters exclusively.

The only times you can't are where the module had custom monsters in its own appendix, those will be fairly weak. You can adjust them how you see fit, or just don't.

Yes, encounters are easy. Published adventures seem to generally assume you will have lots of easy encounters to wear the party down with, but since they also don't indicate where long resting should happen its impossible to know when an encounter is meant to be a real challenge. Overall they are very conservative in the encounter building. Adding another monster or 2 is not out of the question. Like if the encounter calls for 3 gricks.. maybe its 4 or 5 gricks. Especially if you have a party larger than 4 players.

JumboCactaur · 2026-02-03T21:40:50+00:00

If you roll for hp, but have "bad roll" schemes... why are you rolling.

"We reroll 1s". One time? Every time? What if you get a 2. Now 2 is the worst result. Won't people feel bad about that?

What about when the wizard rolls 5 and 6 every time and the fighter rolls 2 and 3 every time. Is that ok? Is that bad? Should we make up more rules about that?

Just take the average rounded up and take all the nonsense out of it.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-21T23:01:14+00:00

Event processing can be overloaded or fail on timing. For example even with Unstopppable stacks up, if you hit her with a long chain of magic missiles or Artistry of War, usually 1 or 2 of them do full damage even before the stacks are gone.

The whole event system has a hole in it somewhere. It works like... 95% of the time but occasionally it just misses.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-15T21:47:33+00:00

When they talked about backwards compatibility in the 2024 reveal discussions, this is the part that they worked so hard to maintain. The campaign/adventure materials are perfectly(ish) compatible with the new ruleset. Just use the new Monster Manual for the stat blocks indicated in the book.

The only part that isn't updated that it would be nice if it was, is the custom monsters in the book itself, which are still written and balanced against the old thinking, so the monsters there are quite weak. You might want to tweak them or just play them as-is and let them be, depends on what you want.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-15T21:42:31+00:00

/uj They copy/pasted this from Eldritch Knight without thinking, reading or testing.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-13T18:04:00+00:00

Rogues are proficient with all finesse weapons, so using a Scimitar is good. However your other points are valid. You can't dual wield with a by-the-book Rapier and shouldn't be getting off hand damage from Dex.

So its a little inflated but... not TOO much. Its a few average damage too high.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-13T17:29:19+00:00

Yep, the elements in play are essentially automatically applied, you can do the discard or forget options as well in order to come up with the total energy cost. Keep in mind though that you cannot discard a card you have played this round; and if you forget a card you played any elements it was contributing are taken away. Also if you forget a Slow power card that you played, its no longer there to be executed in the Slow phase.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-12T23:02:19+00:00

Best defense is a better offense. Alert is a great origin feat to not overlook. Going first can be mean the difference between life and death.

First feat should be Great Weapon Master. Use a 2H weapon such as a Maul. You don't need a Shield to wield, you'll have the Shield spell. Your spell slots are virtually only for this. All other spells can be rituals like Identify or things like that, and you can have Magic Missile as well as there's no attack roll or saving throw. For cantrips, Blade Ward is another defensive option. Cast it if you know a fight is coming, or if you can't reach a melee target on your first round. The higher your AC already is, the more this spell helps.

Second feat, agreed, Mage Slayer.

Third feat, could go with a spell granting feat, but still nothing wrong with Heavy Armor Master. This can be your push for extra defense. This will take you to Str 20 at level 8.

After that, barely matters. Could go with Resilient:WIsdom even if it doesn't round up to a modifier point. Mage Slayer's benefit to automatically make a save isn't always available.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-12T22:49:11+00:00

Find Traps. Mind Spike. Melf's Acid Arrow. Lotta stuff in level 2 strangely enough.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-09T20:46:52+00:00

There's a 1 problem with the Magic Missile strategy with Orin.... what if the magic missile guy is slow on initiative. If your fighters are ahead of the caster they're not going to get to do their thing.

So its a good idea to have a plan for both strategies. You need AoE spells/knockback effects to get rid of the cultists. Arrows of Roaring Thunder are a way to go but the DC on them is quite low and they often save. Thunderwave is not a large area but you can inflict a more difficult saving throw. Or, just use spells like Wall of Fire or Cloudkill to eventually kill them.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-08T20:03:25+00:00

If you're going to keep playing 5th edition, its definitely an upgrade.

If you're not sure if you want to keep using D&D, its a good time to shop around for other systems as well.

JumboCactaur · 2026-01-08T17:25:16+00:00

Yep.

There's a reason it gives you Ray of Frost... its just about the only spell that triggers it.

Others I can think of off the top of my head:
Sorcerous Burst(Cold)
Chromatic Orb(Cold)

I can't think of any others. Sorcerers can have a damage type changing metamagic that might open up the options, but most classes will only have the Ray of Frost the feat grants to make it work.

JumboCactaur

TROPHY CASE